The Several Faces of GRS Products

Like the other major North American railroad signaling supplier, General Railway Signaling of Rochester, NY went through a number of corporate ownership changes over the years, eventually becoming part of Alstom in 1998.  Unlike the other brand, GRS actually made an effort to update is corporate branding over the years and in many cases the logo was cast into the metal housings of its products. 

 The classic GRS logo was  born in the early 20th century and was consisted of a script monogram type inside a circle, similar in concept to General Electric's logo. Along with the plain text "General Railway Signal" that was used on signal housings, this served GRS well up until the 1970's.

At this point the script logo was decidedly old fashioned and was replaced by a sans serif boxy stylized monogram type.  This would be used on documentation up to the Alstom buyout and switch machine castings up through about 2010. 

After being purchased by the Sasib Railways Group of Italy in 1989, an updated logo appeared on its new mono-block color light signal that gave the "GRS" monogram some 90's style and included the Sasib logo as well.

After purchase by Alston, the Sasib bit was removed from the molds, but a ghost impression remained.

Ultimately, Alstom felt there was very little value left in the GRS brand and finally has the casting holds changed to read Alstom.  However because switch parts are durable and able to be reconditioned, the older logos still show up on motors or reconditioned housings on "new" point machines.

While US&S's many parents have still found no reason to update their castings, there have been all sorts of off brand knockoffs of the venerable M3 point machine, but that is a story for another day.

Video: Soviet Signaling on the Russia - Ukraine Border

 Today's video post is ripped from the headlines!  I'm sure many of you are familiar with the past and current conflict between Russia and The Ukraine. Well, the 2014 disagreement had some implications for the Moscow - Rostov-on-Don railway line as some of it actually runs through Ukrainian territory in the vicinity of Chertkovo. To avoid being in any way beholden to the Ukrainian government, Russia built an entirely new bypass between the towns of  Zhuravka and Millerovo.  While trying to figure out how this trans-national rail segment functioned, I found some reverse railfan window video footage that not only showed the area, but also provided a taste of Soviet style railway signaling, a versions of which are also used in former Eastern Bloc states and China.

While I'll try to do a more in depth review of Soviet railway signaling later, a brief primer can be found here. It's an interesting system based on the station and main line system where stations have crossovers and siding tracks and can sort of be considered within interlocking limits.  Here one sees more complex sation signals where the upper head provides information about the next signal, while the lower head provides information of any immediate diverging route, plus stop.  Between stations an ABS 251 system predominates with Approach type signal indications being given by flashing Green and Yellow aspects.  There's a lot of incomplete information so I'll try to get a more complete picture in the future, but for now, enjoy the video.

German Stellwerke Blog and Its English Mirror

Although they have been prominent in my sidebar for many years, I wanted to give another shoutout to the German equivalent of this blog, Von Stellwerken und anderen Maschinen, because the author has been trying their best to provide English translations of some of the key articles in a paralell blog, Of Interlockings and Other Machines. 

 

While the former has hundreds of posts from over the last 10 years and the latter only about a hundred, the effort to provide some translations is particularly important in this niche subject because niche subjects have a habit of confounding automated translation tools like Google Translate.  While the Germany version of the site is still pretty readable if you stare at it enough, the large sample of English translation pages now on the mirror site allows one to really get a handle on how Central European interlocking machines and signaling systems work.  If you are looking for something to do on a cold winter weekend I highly recommend both of these websites as the author has a seeming endless supply of behind the scenes photos, both of in service equipment and preserved.

SEPTA West Chester Line Goes 562 and Other News

 This post had been planned as an update on SEPTA Signaling encountered during my SEPTA Mid-Winter fan trip, but after a couple of additional rail adventures in the December/January time period I figured I should address them in a single post.

The headline news item is that the SEPTA West Chester Line has been converted to Rule 562 operation with cab signals and no intermediate wayside signals.  This is surprising as the line had already been converted to Rule 261 with cab signaling and it appears that SEPTA had to go to the trouble of removing the wayside masts, exposing themselves to all of the attendant issues with cab signal failures.  The most significant loss are the distant signals that had been fitted with Reading style two lamp lozenge heads, that have not really been fitted anywhere since.

One the other hand, no changes were made to the interlockings CANE, MEDIA and NORTH/SOUTH ELWYN.  They still display full indication and not just Cab Speed and Restricting.  Also ARSENAL interlocking is still hanging in there with the LED position lights on the north end and full range color lights on the south end.

On the Routes 101 and 102 Suburban trolley, the long metastasizing CBTC project may or may not be in operation.  What has changed is that SEPTA has added a large number of interlocked crossovers and also interlocked the ends of single track operation.   This actually seems to have increased the number of wayside signals.  In addition to this, the old two aspect ABS signal locations appear to be in place, making me wonder if the CBTC is not yet active or if it will be a safety overlay like in the tunnels with no increase in capacity.

On the Route 100, the passenger stop request signals at stations are still in place, but the short stretch of 3rd rail used to cancel them are now being removed.

On the Amtrak Harrisburg Line / PRR Main Line, the crossovers between #1 and #2 track at OVERBROOK interlocking (levers 13 and 15) have been converted from pneumatic to electric operation.  Not sure what the plans or timeline are, but I figured that OVERBROOK would be replaced and removed, not closed, so this actually might represent a live extension.

 

Moving out along the PRR Main Line, the legacy signal bridges at Cove and CP-BANKS have been removed having been out of service since 2018.

Finally, no work appears to have been started on the off again, on again, NS D&H Main Line re-signaling project between Sunbury and Binghampton.  I visited a number of locations including CP-DUPONT and there is absolutely no evidence of prep work.  Hopefully that continues to limbo along for many years.